A rare doucai 'dragon' jar, Mark and period of Yongzheng | 清雍正 闘彩團雲龍紋罐 《大清雍正年製》款

Acquired in Virginia in the 1990s. 

來源：

1990年代購於弗吉尼亞州

This jar is particularly notable for its delicately painted motif of dragon roundels in soft washes of colored enamel outlined and detailed in cobalt. The motif and color scheme draw from imperial porcelain of the Chenghua period (1465-1487), adapted and reinterpreted in accordance to contemporary taste. A Yongzheng innovation is evident in the use of cobalt not only to delineate the different elements of the design but also to create texture and a sense of movement through the dragons' fine network of scales and manes.

Chenghua polychrome porcelain provided much inspiration to the potters active at the imperial kilns during the Yongzheng period as these early wares were particularly treasured by the Emperor. An official record from 1732 lists 57 porcelain designs that were to be produced by the imperial kilns and mentions Chenghua polychrome porcelain among the most admired wares of the past. While masterpieces of the past were at times sent to Jingdezhen and used as models for direct copying, the most successful Yongzheng wares are contemporary interpretations of classic designs, such as the present jar—dragon roundels are known on Chenghua porcelain but are seldom found on jars, and the rendering of the dragons is characteristic of the Qing period. 

Jars of this design are held in important museums and private collections worldwide; see a closely related jar from the collection of Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks in the British Museum, London (accession no. Franks.338), illustrated in Sekai toji zhenshu / Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 15, Tokyo, 1983, pl. 195; another in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (accession no. 605-1907), is illustrated in W.G. Gulland, Chinese Porcelain, London, 1911, pl. 670; one from the Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, is illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics IV, Qing dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 138; a further jar from the E.T. Chow Collection, was sold three times, most recently in our Hong Kong rooms, 30th April 1996, lot 487.

Jars painted with this motif continued to be produced in succeeding reigns, such as a jar and cover with Qianlong mark and of the period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing (accession no. 00154611), illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelain in Polychrome and Contrasting Colors, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 238.

For a prototype of this form and design, see a Chenghua mark and period covered jar with floral roundels, from the Qing Court Collection and in the Palace Museum, Beijing (accession no. 00115586), illustrated ibid., pl. 168; and a reconstructed cup with roundels of winged dragons, excavated from the Chenghua stratum at the waste heaps of the imperial kiln factory in Jingdezhen, included in the exhibition A Legacy of Chenghua. Imperial Porcelain from the Chenghua Reign Excavated from Zhushan, Jingdezhen, Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. C120.